New Delhi: It is a classic case of "out of the frying pan into the fire"!

A man, convicted of murdering his wife and cutting her body into pieces, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Tamil Nadu trial court. The conviction and sentence was upheld by the High Court.

Not satisfied with the verdict, septuagenarian Veerachamy appealed in the Supreme Court, which asked him to show cause as to why his life sentence be not enhanced to death penalty.

On a minor altercation with his wife for giving away one of his belonging to his son, Veerachamy killed her on June 18, 1998, cut her body into 27 pieces and buried them in a pit dug inside the room.

Next day, he went to police and gave an extra-judicial confession about the crime and after investigation, the police charged him with murder and destruction of evidence.

The trial court held him guilty of the offence and convicted him under the two charges while sentencing him to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3000 for murder and a sentence of seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2000 for destruction of evidence. The Madras High Court upheld both the conviction and sentence imposed on him by the trial court.

On appeal before the Supreme Court, a Bench comprising Justice B N Agrawal and Justice H K Sema, while admitting the petition for hearing, issued notice to Veerachamy asking him to "show cause as to why the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to him be not enhanced to death sentence".

The Court also refused his plea for bail and called for the records of the trial court and High Court.